From the Vicar
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in America. I still remember watching the news before school on the morning of our 12th September. The images were equal parts mesmerising and horrifying. The scenes of the planes crashing into the twin towers, and the eventual implosion of the buildings were played almost on loop, burning the images into our collective consciousness.
As part of the memorialising of the attacks, a number of interesting movies and documentaries have popped up on Netflix, and I’ve been watching some of them in the evenings. As I do, I’m struck by just how much some things have changed and how much other things have stayed the same. Watching the documentaries I was fascinated to see the various analogue technologies used to record it. The iPhone was first released in 2007, so all of the recording on the day was done either with professional TV crews or by folk that happened to be wandering around New York with a cam-corder. Likewise the technology on Air Force One was so primitive that they could only watch the TV coverage (which was integral to their data gathering and decision making) when they were circling over major cities whose TV signal was strong enough to reach the plane.
But these last few weeks have also reminded me just how much hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. The US have finally withdrawn from a 20 year engagement in Afghanistan, only to have the same brutal Taliban regime regain control within days. They are currently putting on a more moderate face, but already there are stories of the mistreatment of women and the decimation of the underground church. Fundamentalism, it seems, still reigns supreme.
And that fundamentalism has rippled out beyond Afghanistan and the US, reaching our shores in a variety of ways. At the forefront of our minds is still the horrific attack in the Lynnmall Countdown store last week. A single man, in a single event has created such pain and heart-ache. Fundamentalism isn’t limited to one faith however. This last week I’ve been horrified by some of the pain caused by fundamentalism within our own tradition. This last week has seen the introduction of abortion law in Texas that lacks any grace or care for those women who find themselves in impossible situations. Even closer to home, I’ve been uncomfortable about the growing anti-vax movement in some Christian circles with trite phrases popping up on my Facebook feed like “Who needs to fear Delta when you know the Alpha and Omega.” I cannot understand why some can’t appreciate medical advances as gifts from God.
So, my prayer this morning is that our hearts would change as quickly as our technology does, and that fundamentalism would become as obsolete as camcorder. May we be deeply faithful to the truths of God, without falling into sanctimoniousness or conspiracy theory or hard-hearted judgement of others. May we take from the Gospel reading this morning God’s salvation plan centres around a Messiah of suffering and self-giving love.
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